22 
following his discovery of Cozumel, May 3, 1518. On May 7 he 
Ch I"'! C\ .5 o (\ Ca i i O\ 1 1 
sailed over to the coast of Yucatan where he passed, as his 
chronicler recorded, "Three large towns separated from each 
other by about two miles. There were many houses of stone, very 
tall towers, and buildings covered with straw... 
"We followed the shore day and night, and the next day toward 
sunset we perceived a city or town so large that Seville would 
not have seemed more considerable, nor better; one saw there a 
very large tower; on the shore was a great throng of Indians, 
who bore two standards which they raised and lowered to signal 
us to approach them; the commander did not wish it. The same 
day we came to a beach near which was the highest tower we had 
seen and one discerned a very considerable town... We discovered 
a bay so large that a fleet might enter. It was lined with wooden 
buildings set up by fishermen." 
Authorities are generally agreed that this "highest tower" 
was the Castillo at Tulum. "The large city or town," to my mind, 
was the "residential" part of Tulum. At Tancah undoubtedly was 
located one of the other three towns mentioned in the quoted 
account, and the great bay probably was our Bahia de Ascension 
Grijalva's expedition was the second of two outfitted in those 
early days at Santiago de Cuba for a search to the westward for 
slaves and/or gold. To the first of these, headed by Francisco 
Fernandez de Cordoba, is to be credited the discovery of Isla 
Mujeres in 1517. 
